WORLD MIGRATION 2003 GENERAL SECTION 1 2 WORLD MIGRATION 2003 AN OVERVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL 3 MIGRATION CHAPTER 1 In traditional societies, most people spent their entire existence in their village or town of origin. Today, migration Approaches to and has become a routine process for persons wishing to improve their material living conditions and find greater security. Diversity of International Migration follows a variety of routes: from the village to the city; from one region to another; from one country to Migration another; or from one continent to another. Non-migrants are themselves also affected by migration since they are The world migration landscape has undergone sweeping members of the same family, friends or descendants of changes in the past decade or so. The enduring impact of migrants or members of local communities that receive globalization has brought significant consequences for the migrants. socio-economic phenomenon of migration. At the same time, migration is helping to transform contemporary Migration movements were long confined to relatively economic and social relations. With its place now firmly straightforward and linear relations between closely linked established on national and international agendas, policy- poles – a sending country automatically had its receiving makers around the world are challenged to better understand country, based on age-old ties that were mostly cultural, the nature and scope of migration, so as to better manage emotional, economic or historical in nature; however, these it for the benefit, growth, security and stability of their special relations are today rapidly giving way to an unpre- societies. cedented widening of the migration landscape. This broa- dening is moving hand-in-hand with the evolution of the Diversification of migration flows and stocks is the new types of migration. The classical, long-term migration watchword for the current dynamics. The number of model will dominate less and less in the future as other countries and nationalities concerned and directly involved types of migration – including short-term and circulatory in human mobility is rising steadily. None of the roughly migration – come to the fore. 4 190 sovereign states in the international system is now beyond the reach of migration circuits. Indeed, they are all One thing is beyond doubt: migration is gradually eroding either countries of origin, transit or destination for migrants, the traditional boundaries between languages, cultures, and increasingly are all three simultaneously. Migration ethnic groups and nation-states. A transnational flow par circuits span the globe like a spider’s web, with complex excellence, it therefore defies cultural traditions, national ramifications and countless intersections. The current identities and political institutions, contributing in the world map of migration is therefore multipolar. long run to curtailing nation-state autonomy and to shaping a global society. No longer simply the result of identifiable Migration is being shaped by multiple pull and push factors push and pull factors, human mobility is developing a – primary among them are economic development and its life of its own. disparities, population trends, the existence of migratory networks, access to information, the ease of travel today, armed conflicts, environmental deterioration and human The Scale of Migration rights violations. Changes in these factors may be gradual or abrupt and bring corresponding changes in migratory At the start of the twenty-first century, one out of every behaviour. Mobility is being hastened by the entry and 35 persons worldwide is an international migrant. integration of local communities and national economies The Population Division of the United Nations estimates into global relations. As such, migration represents a signi- the total number of international migrants at approxima- ficant variable in the evolution of societies and economies. tely 175 million (United Nations, 2002). This number This evolutionary process is being amplified by globali- includes refugees and displaced persons, but does not zation, which is marked by the broadening, deepening capture irregular migrants who escape official accounting. and acceleration of global interconnection in all aspects of life (Held et al., 1999). Like other flows, whether financial Based on the world population of 6.057 billion in 2000, or commercial, flows of ideas or information, the rising migrants represent some 2.9 per cent. This percentage tide of people crossing frontiers is among the most reliable has changed in recent decades and has been rising steadily indicators of the intensity of globalization. over the past 15 years. Although representing a relatively WORLD MIGRATION 2003 small percentage of the world’s population, if all international (1.7 per cent per annum) and international migration migrants lived in the same place, it would be the world’s increased significantly (2.59 per cent per annum). fifth biggest country. While the number of migrants more than doubled between There were some 75 million international migrants in 1965. 1965 and 2000 (from 75 to 175 million), the world’s Ten years later, in 1975, the number was 84 million, then population also grew twofold over the same period (1960- 105 million in 1985. International migration rose less 1999), from 3 to 6 billion people. Demographers project rapidly between 1965 and 1975 (1.16 per cent per annum) an increase in the world population to approximately than the world population (2.04 per cent per annum). 9 billion by 2050, to include some 230 million migrants. This situation has been changing since the 1980s, as Graph 1.1. illustrates the above figures. the rate of world population growth began to decline GRAPH 1.1. World Population – Non-Migrants and Migrants (Stock Figures), 1965-2050 Total world population in 2050* = 9,000 million 8,770 230 (2.6%) 2050 Total world population in 2000 = 6,057 million 5 5,882 175 (2.9%) 2000 Total world population in 1985 = 4,825 million 4,720 105 (2.2%) 1985 Total world population in 1975 = 4,066 million 3,982 84 (2.1%) 1975 Total world population in 1965 = 3,333 million 3,258 75 (2.3%) 1965 0 1 000 2 000 3 000 4 000 5 000 6 000 7 000 8 000 9 000 10 000 Non-Migrants Migrants Note: Source: * Figures for 2050 are extrapolations. United Nations Population Division (2002), IOM (2000), MPRP calculations. The annual flow of migrants is now somewhere between metropolises of the global economy. As for other types of 5 and 10 million people (Simon, 2001), including undo- migrants, the absolute number or even the proportion of cumented migrants. If we take the upper limit as a basis, highly skilled migrants is extremely difficult to estimate. it represents roughly one-tenth of the annual growth in In the African context, the World Bank estimates that world population. Of this number, according to estimates about 70,000 African professionals and university gra- published by the US Justice Department in 1998, between duates leave their country of origin each year to work in 700,000 and 2 million women and children were estimated Europe or North America (Weiss, 2001a). This exodus is to be trafficking victims (IOM, 2001). delaying economic, industrial and agricultural development considerably by, among others, hampering technology The scale of migration varies significantly between world transfer possibilities. Brain drain results when these highly regions. South-North international migration flows are but skilled migrants do not re-enter the home economy. one aspect of the reality and there are appreciable South- South intercontinental or intra-continental migration flows: Yet European countries also suffer from this phenomenon, in 1965, the western industrialized countries absorbed only especially in high technology, natural sciences and engi- 36.5 per cent of international migrants as compared to neering. Many European scientists are being lured away 43.4 per cent in 1990 and 40 per cent in 2000. Migration by better working conditions and salaries offered by the streams among developing countries are generally inter- private sector or universities, mainly in the United States regional (Zlotnik, 1998). In other words, most migrants or Canada. are from the South and are received by countries in the South. The last quarter of the twentieth century constituted “an era of migration” and demonstrated that no continent is Migration is difficult to quantify at the national and inter- beyond the reach of global migration streams (Castles national level because of its inherent changeability, the and Miller, 1996). However, most of the world’s inhabitants large numbers of undocumented migrants and the lack remain where they are as they have no resources, net- 6 of established governmental systems in most countries for works, opportunities or quite simply any personal benefits collection of migration-related data. Migrants’ mobility to be derived from mobility. Lack of any desire and moti- means that they can often be elusive and the migration vation to leave home, family and friends is a powerful process reversible or renewable. However, it is generally “non-migration” factor (Martin and Widgren, 2002). agreed that the number of movements has increased Many field studies demonstrate that most people do not significantly over the past 10 years, particularly through the wish to emigrate to a foreign country, and that given the emergence of “new” groups of migrants, such as women choice, many migrants would much prefer to be “circular” migrating individually and highly qualified migrants. rather than permanent migrants (Sassen, 2002). After all, remaining in one’s country of birth is the norm and Women now move around far more independently and no migration to settle elsewhere the exception. longer in relation to their family position or under a man’s authority. This reflects women’s growing participation in all aspects of modern life. Roughly 48 per cent of all migrants TEXTBOX 1.1. are women (IOM, 2000). In some regions, this proportion is even higher.